Welcome to Mozy’s App Profile, where we introduce new programs seeking to improve the way we live and socialize. This week, Mozy takes a look at ‘Song for Pic,’ a platform that adds randomized music to your existing Instagram photos (and videos soon too).

As recent as February 2013, Instagram hit 100 million active monthly users. The now-Facebook owned app has certainly introduced the online community to talented photographers and artists—as well as brought out the inner photogs in us all—but as of today, Instagram has yet to create a truly monetizable service.

Song for Pic, a new Instagram platform that randomly assigns music to a user’s uploaded photo, might eventually fill that void. While the platform is still in its infancy, the plan is for the music industry to piggyback on Instagram’s coattails to explore a much more instantaneous, and potentially lucrative connection with prospective users.

The inspiration for Song for Pic was about as straight forward as one would think.

“I loved Instagram from the first moment I tried it,” said Ricardo Fonseca, Song for Pic CEO. “But I also felt it was missing an important artistic component: music.”

A few months later, Song for Pic was born.

The platform is extremely easy to use. When a user enters the main site, they’re prompted to enter their Instagram user name and password. Song for Pic then automatically retrieves a photo from the Instagram account, and assigns four random songs. The songs range features classics and/or very well known songs, “Like from Kris Kross to Michael Jackson to Aretha Franklin—just to name a few,” Fonseca said.

A user then has the option to share their new and improved Instagram photo to Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and/or Tumblr, so that friends can vote on which of the four songs they think is the most appropriate for the given photo.

But perhaps the recent news of Instagram incorporating video—in an attempt to challenge Vine’s short-lived monopoly—is a prime case of “right place, right time” for Fonseca’s tune-centered platform.

Perhaps more so than photos,”video already has the audio element,” Fonseca said. “The result of mixing video and one random song would most likely have a music video quality, which with the appropriate song, could be quite fun [and hopefully have mainstream appeal].”

Fonseca, who is currently unaware of any other start-up working on a similar platform, realizes that the market could quickly become flooded with competition. That said, the future is still bright for Song for Pic.

“The possibility of instantly buying the song was always a goal in this project,” said Fonseca. “At the very least, Song for Pic will certainly be a new way for people to discover music [...] and a fresh way for the music industry to reach [them].”

Each week we scour the internet to find the best stories on technology, digital living and news of note. This week features a safer GPS, technology that can read fingerprints even if they’ve been wiped away, and contact lenses that can zoom in and out. All that and more in this edition of Mozy’s Technically Speaking.

Garmin Creates GPS that Projects Onto Windshields

These days drivers have so many choices when it comes to choosing a GPS for their cars. There’s the built-in versions, the hang-on-the-windshield types, smartphone apps, and more. Garmin, one of the leaders in the GPS industry, has developed new technology aimed to make navigation safer and more useful, according to VentureBeat. The “Heads Up Display”, or HUD, connects to Garmin’s StreetPilot and Navigon apps via bluetooth and projects the navigation information onto the car windshield, keeping details in the driver’s line of sight. The cost of the HUD is $130, and it has to be paired with Garmin’s apps.

Contact Lens Allows Wearers to Zoom in and Out

It’s still in the testing phases, but if all goes well there will soon be a contact lens on the market that will give wearers the ability to zoom in and out on focal points. Nic Halverson of Mashable reports that “the telescopic lens is just over a millimeter thick and is composed of a central unmagnified optical path, surrounded by a ring of movable components that magnify the view 2.8 times.” The creators of the lens have been testing the technology using a pair of Samsung 3D television glasses. Although the prototype is still attached to the glasses, researchers are hopeful further testing will result in being able to bring the lens to market.

Apple’s New Macbook Air has All-Day Battery Life

On first glance, Apple’s new Macbook Air model doesn’t appear to be much different than the original design created two-and-a-half years ago. But it’s not the look that has techies excited about the product–it’s the life of the battery. According to Brooke Crothers of CNET the original 13-inch Macbook Air battery ran for 7 hours and 27 minutes, and the new version goes for 14 hours and 25 minutes. The design of the computer hasn’t changed, nor has the resolution of the screen, making the battery life the major upgrade for the 2013 model.

New Fingerprint Technology Can Provide ID Even if Surface has Been Wiped

Although it seems like something from the television show CSI rather than real police labs, a new form of fingerprint technology is making things tougher on criminals. TechnoBuffalo’s Brandon Russell writes that Leicester University scientists have developed a color-changing fluorescent film method to capture hidden or latent prints on metal surfaces. It can be used on weapons like guns or knives, as well as surfaces like doorknobs and appliances. There will still be ways around getting caught–like wearing gloves–but the new technology will put an end to being able to wipe away prints from a crime scene.

Unless you are Google, you probably can’t spare the time because it’s not relevant. For small business owners and entrepreneurs, there’s a new solution for filtering through all the noise in the news to discover the most relevant stories for your business.

Founded by Jean Friesewinkel, a developer, engineer and former business consultant at Bain & Company, WiseRadar aggregates and curates news about your competitors, customers, and market into a simple, digestible email.

Users start with the first step, which is to “setup your radar.” You add competitors that WiseRadar will help monitor. The list of companies comes from the Crunchbase and AngelList directories, but you can also request to add unlisted businesses. Then, voila! What you do with the competitor news and your extra free time is up to you.

As the co-founder of Blank Label, a luxury menswear company, I decided to sign up for WiseRadar and give it a whirl. After I received beta access, I added nine businesses to my radar (WiseRadar recommends adding ten). Shortly afterwards, I received my first curated email digest.

The email begins with a friendly greeting, “Welcome, Danny! Your radar is up and running.” And then prefaces with:

To make the most of our beta, here are three things you should know:

Morning reports. Your digests will arrive on weekdays at 7am, and will include up to 5 stories relevant to the companies you’ve added.

No noise. We make it a principle to only send relevant stories. But if you don’t receive anything for a while and think you should have, please let us know!

We’re here to help you. You can simply reply to your digests with questions or requests. We’re just getting started, and we’ll always be listening.

Below is your first digest. Enjoy!

The meaty part of the email included links to five stories about companies on my radar.

The first link was the only one that was truly relevant, although outdated — nearly four weeks old. The second story featured a new startup we had never heard of, which I shall soon add to my radar, and briefly mentioned a competitor I listed. The third and the fifth stories mentioned a competitor, but were irrelevant because they featured a business we didn’t care about. The fourth story came with a bad link.

Although my remarks seem critical, the fact is, the companies on my radar have been quiet lately. As a user of Google Alerts, to keep tabs on the competition, I have heard the crickets chirping over the past months.

Tools like WiseRadar, which aim to provide a more sophisticated version of Google Alerts, are important because they minimize the distraction that comes from too much news.

I am a reformed news junkie. When I first fell in love with startups back in 2009, I read every-and-any article TechCrunch published. And I was busier than I ever could have imagined. But being busy isn’t the same as being productive.

Getting caught up in the hype of news is one of the biggest traps small business owners and entrepreneurs fall into that leads to massive bouts of non-productivity. (Email is another.)

People, small business owners and entrepreneurs especially, are an emotional breed. We are attracted to news that shocks or ‘wows’ us. For this reason, catchy headlines from Mashable and picture slideshows from Business Insider easily fill up an afternoon that could have otherwise been used towards creating real value. When I came to this realization, I deleted the bookmarks on my web browser and started doing real work.

Simply put, read less news. You’ll be happier, and your business will thank you.

Welcome to Mozy’s App Profile, where we introduce some of the new programs seeking the way we live and work. This week, Sketchfab recreates a 3D world on a 2D screen..

Despite the amazing technological advancements you’ve seen in your life, the images on your computer and smartphone can’t fully replicate the three-dimensional world around you.

Sketchfab is trying to change that. The New York-based startup has a vision to create a website where designers can properly showcase their 3D model work as it should be–with height, width, and depth.

“There are major web platforms for each media format,” said Alban Denoyel, CEO of Sketchfab. “YouTube [is] for videos, Slideshare [is] for slides, and Soundcloud [is] for music. Sketchfab [wants] to become the online home for 3D files.”

Unlike artist video reels, where viewers only get a limited, awkward taste of an artist’s work, Sketchfab enables viewers (and prospective clients) to fully experience all of the finer graphic details–like zooming in and out, into and around every nook and cranny of the model. Sketchfab’s Sony PS4 model, for instance, provides users with a unique view of the new gaming hardware.

“3D models are incredibly engaging, and do exactly what the internet does best–convey information,” said Denoyel. “They display levels of detail that you either can’t get from a photograph, or would need multiple photographs to convey. And [3D models] give the user full control of how they take that information in, as opposed to photo and video, whose point of view has been decided on by someone other than the user.”

Sketchfab also provides users with the ability to make on-the-fly stylistic edits with the “Toolbox.” Users can choose between a shadeless or original render, as well as transforming it into a wire-frame style in either white, grey, black, or blue.

The model platform also takes 27 different 3D formats, has exporters available for most major software platforms, and each model has its own embed code. The latter means, from a social standpoint, that Sketchfab makes sharing simple. Linking or embedding a 3D model is as elementary as a YouTube link.

And there doesn’t seem to be much competition, either.

“There were many attempts to do a web-based 3D viewer before,” Denoyel noted. “But all of them required plugins, which is a no-go today.”

Considering the ease and seamlessness of the platform, the appeal of Sketchfab is universal–and has a lot of long-term potential.

While the company is still exploring various revenue models, Denoyel’s eyes are on capturing the market. “The absolute focus is to be the number one community for 3D designers on the web” he said. “Because you can make 3D models of anything, [...] 3D models will become an integral part of media in general, as well e-commerce and brand marketing, amongst other verticals [like the tech world]. Imagine going to Amazon.com, and instead of needing to click through 10 different photos to get an idea of what a product looked like, you could instead fully interact with a life-like 3D model.”

Even though Sketchfab is still in its infancy, the site is quickly becoming popular. In fact, Sketchfab’s 3D model of the new Sony PS4 received more views than Sony’s official trailer–and in just five days, the model haseclipsed the 430K view mark.

As exciting as Sketchfab’s initial success has been, the future of 3D model technology might revolutionize the types of media online users share.

“3D scanning technology will be built into smartphones, which means anyone will be able to create a 3D model,” said Denoyel. “And [users] are going to want to share their creations–the same way people want to share their photos and videos. [...]”

Each week we scour the internet to find the best stories on technology, digital living and news of note. This week features a cast that won’t itch, a baseball team with a social media hub, and a robot ape you have to see to believe. All that and more in this edition of Mozy’s Technically Speaking.

Robotic Apes Aim for Space

German researches have created a robotic ape and hope to bring the invention to great heights (literally). Megan Treacy of Treehugger reports that this incredible life-like robotic ape mimics movements of the actual animals, using its back feet and front knuckles to move about. It can walk forward, backward and side to side without a tether. While many robotic animals have been created with the intentions of use in search and rescue operations or surveillance, the creators of this ape have higher expectations–they would like to be able to send it to space. The company that funded a large chunk of the project is the Agency of the German Aerospace Center, which may ultimately use the ape for work on space stations, other planets or even piloting spacecraft.

3D Printed Casts Could Make Recovery a Breeze

Say goodbye plastic baggies for showers and coat hangers for scratchings. Designer Jake Evill is aiming to put an end to heavy and itchy molded casts for good. According to CNET, Evill has developed a Cortex exoskeletal cast concept using 3D printing. The cast is light, strong, full of holes for air to get through, and safe for showering. The way the idea would work is that someone with a suspected fracture would get an x-ray as well as a 3D of the injured area. A cast would be then be individualized for the person and the injury, providing more support for the healing bone. The cast is still just a concept, but there’s a real possibility of it being available in the healthcare industry at some point. No word on whether it will be called the Evill Arm, but it should.

News for iWatchers? Apple iWatch May Be on It’s Way

Rumors have been circulating for a while now about Apple making an iWatch, and it looks like it may be true, as the company has now filed for a patent for the device in Japan, says Erica Ogg of Gigaom. Unofficial reports have said that the iWatch may run iOS and have a pedometer and heart rate monitor. It could also have the capability of making calls and checking points on a map. The iWatch would be part of the fast-growing industry of wearable technology, which is projected to make about $1.5 billion next year. The filing of the patent doesn’t necessarily mean the release of the product will come right away. For now there’s no telling how much time it will take for these to hit the shelves.

Major League Baseball Team Creates Social Media Cafe at Ballpark

The San Francisco Giants baseball team is being called a digital leader after it created a Social Media Café at its stadium AT&T Park. The café is Major League Baseball’s first social media command center and is located inside Peet’s Coffee, which is set behind centerfield, according to Forbes. Inside, fans can use their Twitter and Instagram accounts on six, 55-inch screens. The café also provides visitors with a place to enjoy coffee, recharge their phones, get a Wi-Fi connection–all while watching the game.

Today, we’re announcing some important updates to MozyPro® and MozyEnterprise® that will make management of the services much easier, saving you time and money. So, what is all the fuss about? Two words: simplified management. Across our services, we’ll be introducing a new storage management platform, keyless activation and provisioning, and for MozyEnterprise, Active Directory integration. We hope you’ll love Mozy even more, especially if you’re the admin for your company.

Here’s what these two little words – simplifiedmanagement- get you:

Seamless Single Sign On (SSO) integration – MozyEnterprise® will integrate with your Active Directory or other LDAP solution, making the maintenance of the Mozy service more manageable for administrators and easing scalability for your organization. Additionally, MozyEnterprise will integrate with any IdP that supports SAML 2.0, including Ping, ADFS, SiteMinder and VMware Horizon.

Simple Storage Management – Mozy is introducing Pooled Storage, which will make resource management simple, fast, and more cost–effective. Storage will be managed at the organization or user group level, with the added option of setting maximum storage limits to specific users or devices. Your account administrator will no longer assign storage on a per device basis.

Keyless user provisioning – Protection for every employee in your organization with fast user provisioning and activation – and no license keys required! You will be able to add one or more users quickly by simply importing a list of users and easily configuring the settings for users and user groups. With the option to silently deploy backup agents to your employees’ devices, you will be able to ensure protection of your business data, regardless of location. Furthermore, your employees will be able to self–service their own activation, installation and restores – while your admin maintains control.

We look forward to delivering this enhanced Mozy management experience. As Director of Product Management for Mozy, I am excited about the new changes that we will be releasing for our customers. We continue to work hard to keep Mozy as the leading cloud backup service, globally – there is much more to come so stay tuned.

Advancements in technology have opened up the literary world for hopeful authors. Not too long ago, the only way for writers to get their work published and distributed was with the help of big-name publishing houses. Thanks to the Internet and a variety of tools, self-publishing is now a popular and easy method for individuals to market and sell their books to the masses.

Based on discussions with some authors who have successfully self-published, there are several tech services that make the process easy. Here are the top three they mentioned:

1. OnlineSelf-Publishing Platforms: One of the very first thing someone who wants to self publish has to find is a website that will do the printing, publishing, and distribution for them. CreateSpace and LuLu are two of the largest. Both offer “print on demand” services, which means that books are printed only when someone orders a copy, so neither the author nor the publisher is responsible for unsold inventory.

“One of the greatest benefits of publishing now is print on demand,” explains Jed Diamond, PhD, author of several books focused on helping men live long and well. Jed is the founder of the website Men Alive, and has been self publishing since the 1980s. His most recent book is MenAlive: Stop Killer Stress with SimpleEnergy Healing Tools. “In 1983 I had to buy 2,000 books to get the price per book down to a price that anyone would buy.” Diamond said. ”Now I can literally have one book printed when I need it and the price is not only reasonable, but you can actually make a decent profit.”

2. Social Media: When authors go through the big publishing houses,they get the support of a marketing team to help promote their book. When self-publishing, most authors have to do the selling themselves. Perhaps the best free way to get exposure these days is through social media. Sites like Twitter, Linked In, Google +, and the app Goodreads all allow writers to reach out to potential readers.

Bonnie Nordling is a children’s writer who is currently working on self-publishing her first book series about the time-traveling teddy bear Sir Teddy Bertie. Nordling is fairly new to the industry, and without the backing of a publishing company she had to work on getting attention through social media. ”Social media has helped me finally feel like an ‘author’ because I am linked to other authors and am constantly reading tweets and messages from people in the same industry,” Nordling said. “You get to learn about your competition, but the trick is to not let it intimidate you. Social media is fun and when ‘work’ is fun, then it is even more likely to pay off.”

3. Cloud/Data Backup: Authors don’t write a book in one sitting (at least not most of them). It takes time and effort. It takes several drafts and edits. So what happens if someone is three-quarters finished with their newest book and their computer crashes? That’s where cloud and data backup services come into play. By having their writing backed up somewhere other than their computer, a crash or accidental deletion becomes much less disastrous.

“My computer only had to scare me once with that blue screen of death before I started to back up on the cloud every time,” says Dr. LeslieBeth Wish, self-published author of several self-help books for women and love, including the upcoming Adventures of Almost Smart Cookie. “Using cloud technology also frees up your computer space, which is often needed for authors.”

Conclusion

Diamond, Nordling, and Wish all agree that online publishing sites, cloud, and social media are extremely important for authors who want to self-publish. The beauty of self-publishing is that it allows anyone to write a book and get it published. However, in order for it to actually be purchased and read, authors have to do a little more than just ink their stories.

We’ve had so much fun introducing our team members to you that this month we’ve chosen someone who has been with Mozy for quite a few years. His tenure with the company has allowed him unique insight to the change that Mozy has gone through – both as a company and the culture within the company. Allow me to introduce you to James Jolley. James oversees our Affiliate and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) programs. He provides support for our Affiliates and ensures they are well taken care of and the partnerships remain positive. As the SEO Manager, James also provides incredible insight and direction for where we strategically place ourselves online.

I define my workspace as …

After five years with the company you would think I would have dolled up my cubicle but I haven’t. Therefore, I would define my workspace as a place where my computer and I reside for a few hours a day – it’s not much more than that.

A device I can’t live without …jack
The device that provides the world with Mountain Dew.Author’s note: I can safely say that James has tried every single Mountain Dew product or spin-off, including Mtn. Dew lip balm. Saying that he loves Mtn. Dew is an understatement.

When I arrive at work, I typically start off by …
Answering emails and getting caught up on relevant marketing blogs.

My work routine is …
Get caught up on emails. Then depending on the day I’ll work on one of our five Affiliate programs or our sites for SEO efforts.

I do/do not listen to music at work and it helps me work better because …
It’s hard for me to focus in a cubicle environment where you can hear every conversation and as a result, I do listen to music. Noise cancelling headphones playing Chopin or Dave Matthews Band and I’m set for the day!

The best advice I can give a recent college graduate looking to do what I do is …
Don’t get frustrated because most of what you end up doing won’t be covered in college. Take one day at a time and build a solid foundation. Allow yourself at least one hour a day at work to increase your knowledge base.

Outside of work, I am passionate about …
I’ve recently become an avid road cyclist. I’m fortunate (as well as my coworkers) that Mozy has showers so that I can ride into work during the summer. I also really like learning about U.S. history – from the beginnings of Plymouth and Jamestown to the end of WWII.

My eating habits are …
…getting better. I’m trying to eat out less and making healthier choices besides the annual gorge on Girl Scout cookies.

If I could be someone for a day – I would be …
Curator/Director for Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. I spent a whole day (the guard had to kick me out) at that museum and was only able to get through two of the three floors. Going behind the scenes to see what they have but don’t show would be amazing.

The “secret sauce” that makes me who I am …
I guess would be my ability to keep cool in stressful situations. I also try to learn something about everything so that I don’t have to avoid any conversation where I don’t have anything in common with the other person.

All of this may be paving paving the way for a future full of “yes” when it comes to small-business employers. Freelance professionals are enjoying fresh attention in 2013.

“What is clear is that online freelancing appears to be an answer to worker happiness in terms of increased flexibility and quality of life, as well as to increased financial independence,” according to an annual impact report recently released by Elance. From what’s driving freelance and business choices to how those decisions are affecting bottom lines — here are some highlights of the study.

1. High Quality Talent Is an Attractor: In the past year alone, there has been a 153% increase in freelancers online with skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. That means that employers are increasingly likely get used to searching for the right individuals with the right skillsets in the digital space. The longer that goes, on the more entrenched the concept will become.

2.Online Workers Like Their Independence: Sixty-nine percent that answered the survey said they were happier when freelancing versus working in a traditional onsite job. The average freelancer estimates they have 28 more personal days than they did working in a corporate environment. This is another recipe for keeping the online workforce of 1 billion at those numbers or better. Appealing work environments bring new participants. That’s just intuitive.

4.Reduced Hiring Friction Helps Bottom Lines:According to a new measure of Labor Department data, the average hiring time under traditional methods is 23 days. That’s time and effort on the part of HR, and that’s lost or negatively affected productivity when a position is left open. By some measures, the survey suggests that online hiring can shave that turnaround to just 3.3 days. There isn’t a small-business owner on the planet who’d balk at that, if the skills and experience of the candidate selected are as solid as anyone hired under the old way.

If bottom lines go down for the employer, and incomes increase for those freelancers getting hired, then the future of this new way of thinking about workers and job fulfillment stands to become more and more the norm in 2014 and beyond.

Each week we scour the internet to find the best stories on technology, digital living and news of note. This week features an electric car that can go 186 MPH, video on Instagram, and the FAA considering more lenient rules on using electronics during flights. All that and more in this edition of Mozy’s Technically Speaking.

Nissan Announces the World’s Fastest Electronic Car

Imagine cruising around in this beauty. It’s the Nissan ZEOD RC, the world’s fastest electric car, able to travel at a speed of 186 MPH. The next stop for the ZEOD RC (“zero-emmissions on-demand racing car”) will be next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans auto race, reports Charlie White of Mashable.The car uses the same lithium-ion batteries as the Nissan Leaf, another electric car made by the automaker. Nissan plans to test out several combinations of electric motors and gasoline engines before the car takes to the race track in 2014.

Good News for Frequent Flyers: Some Electronics May Be Allowed During Takeoff and Landing

The FAA is looking into easing its restrictions on in-flight gadget use, reports Sara Gates of the Huffington Post. This may take some time, however, because current FAA rules state that before a gadget can be approved for use the airline must test each iteration of a device on each type of plane. Last year a panel of experts was assembled to review the current rules and regulations and plans to release its report in late September. Currently the FAA allows certain devices, like tablets and iPods, once the plane reaches an altitude of 10,000 feet. Although the FAA is hopeful that it may be able to ease some of the restrictions, it looks like full use of mobile phones will still be prohibited.

Instagram Launches 15-Second Video Feature

Popular photo-sharing social network Instagram now lets users share video as well.Video On Instagram allows users to create 15-second videos to share on the site. It includes simple editing capabilities and 13 new filters created just for video. Video On Instagram is available on both iOS and Android and is aimed to increase the company’s already impressive numbers of 130 million monthly users, 16 billion shared photos, and over a billion “likes.” The launch comes at the heels of Vine, the Twitter-owned app that lets users share 6-second videos, which launched earlier this year.

Tablet Shipments to Increase by 68 Percent this Year

A recent study by Gartner shows that the tech industry is alive and well, with shipments of tablets, smartphones and PCs expected to increase by 6 percent worldwide this year. According to CNET, the main reason for the increase in shipment percentage is due to the massive amount of tablets being sold. Tablet shipments alone will jump 68 percent to 202 million–plenty of make up for the lag in PC shipments (desktops and laptops), which will drop 10.6 percent to 305 million. Meanwhile mobile phone sales are still huge and will increase by 4.3 percent to 1.8 billion.